Steven Seaweed's
Ten top tenz Lists

10 FAVORITE ALBUMS

10.) 24 NIGHTS, ERIC CLAPTON, 1991
In the late Eighties, Clapton used to do an annual series of concerts at London's Royal Albert Hall (been there....awesome place).  Sometimes it was blues night, another time orchestral night, maybe a rock night.  24 Nights is a killer double album recorded over 24 nights (get it?) in 1990 and 1991.  I love it!  It really shows how diverse a musician Eric Clapton is as he brings in bluesmen like Buddy Guy and Robert Cray, The National Philharmonic Orchestra, the great Chuck Leavell on keyboards, Katie Kissoon with such an awesome voice, and Jimmy Vaughan.  The old Cream stuff, like Badge and Sunshine Of Your Love (9 minutes!) absolutely rocks with a very Cream-like four-piece band.  Stupid-ass me never went to see Cream at the Fillmore when I had the chance, but these versions are very powerful.  The stuff with the 9-piece band and orchestra is excellent as well......Bad Love, Bell Bottom Blues, and my favorite, Wonderful Tonight.  Great for long road trips.

9.) ALL THAT YOU CAN'T LEAVE BEHIND, U2, 2000
Maybe it's because U2 was #3 on my concert list (and this was the album they were supporting), but I absolutely love this record.  It really reminds me of The Joshua Tree (scroll down for that) and I've probably listened to it maybe a hundred times.  And not a bad song on it.  You can see why Beautiful Day is such a big hit.  Wild Honey, In a Little While, Walk On, Elevation ...... great music.  My personal fave is Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of and right now, U2 is my favorite band on the Planet!

8.) HARVEST MOON, NEIL YOUNG, 1992
I've always been a huge Neil Young Fan.  Way back to Buffalo Springfield days.  Plus, we're Santa Cruz Mountains neighbors (30 miles as the crow flies) and he likes old Cadillacs and golf.  This is another album I've listened to a million times.  Harvest Moon came out exactly 20 years after Harvest, a wonderful record and his most popular.  The two albums use a lot of the same people including The Stray Gators as backing band, Jack Nitzsche arranging, even James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt on vocals again.  Neil was 26 when he did Harvest, so that's the difference......mixed up kid spounting off, versus old-fart getting all teary-eyed and philosophical.  Best song:  the title track, Harvest Moon.  Also worth listening to a few hundred times at least......From Hank to Hendrix, Unknown Legend, You and Me and One of These Days.

7.)  THE WHITE ALBUM, THE BEATLES, 1968 
Maybe the reason I like this album so much is because of where I was in the Fall of 1968.  I had just graduated from college, living in Honolulu, selling tires at Sears, and basically just digging life in The Islands.  Learned to surf and scuba dive, do nothing, do everything, Hendrix in concert, Sgt. Peppers on the turntable......it was all good.  I moved back to California just as the Beatles White Album came out, and along with 6 friends living in "The Space House," (hey, that's what we called it ....... it was 1968, you big stoner!) we played both sides of both discs of the White Album every night until basically......forever.  Anyway, my favorite track is probably the first, Back In The USSR, McCartney's blatant parody of the Beach Boys.  Also Blackbird, Helter Skelter and Birthday are big Paulie faves.  John Lennon was a master at writing ballads, and  Dear Prudence, Julia, and Good Night (last track with Ringo on vocals) are wonderful. But the George Harrison stuff is awesome......Savoy Truffle, Piggies and, with his pal Eric Clapton on guitar, While My Guitar Gently Weeps. The Beatles first double album, it became the biggest selling double album of all time and was pretty much #1 on every chart on the planet.  One negative:  Yoko Ono on background vocals on Birthday. Sorry, we vote No on Yoko.

6.) THE DOORS, 1967
I can't tell you how many gazillion times I've listened to The Doors first album......mostly with headphones, sometimes in the bathroom and, pretty much every day of 1967 and 1968. We lived in a house on 12th street by San Jose State, right behind the 7-11. Matter of fact, we even put a gate in the back fence leading directly into the parking lot of Slurpee Heaven (not that we ever got cravings or anything). Anyway, you want psychedelic? Look no further than The Doors. psy·che·del·ic (sI`ke del`ik) adj. 1. of or causing extreme changes in the conscious mind, as hallucinations 2. of or associated with psychedelic drugs. Contrary to popular belief, Jim Morrison wasn't the first guy on the planet to drop acid, but in the end he may have done more than anyone else. He was always a guy on the edge (many times, literally, on the edge of the stage, where i saw him fall into the crowd on more than one occasion. (editors note: currently under investigation, we believe this might be the first instance of "stage diving"). My favorite track on The Doors is the first one, Break on Through (To the Other Side). (Light My Fire notwithstanding). There's lots of other great ones too, like The Crystal Ship, Twentieth Century Fox, Willie Dixon's Back Door Man, and, right there to slam you in the face at the end......The End, which they performed way differently each of the three times I saw them in concert. By the way, that house on 12th street? After we left, the next tenants were a group of musicians who became known as The Doobie Brothers.

5.)  STICKY FINGERS, ROLLING STONES, 1971
This album came out right before I got into radio.  Just gotten back from a six-month trip around the world and ended up living in a small cabin in the Santa Cruz mountains, basically just hanging out and loving life.  I have no idea whatsoever how this record got in my hands, but i'm sure i heard it played on KSAN (funny thing......same station i'm on now!).  Heard Bitch, and I was hooked.  Nowadays when I hear that song, it seems to be all about Mick and his supermodel girlfriends.  Best track on the album? Hands down it's Can't You Hear Me Knocking? And it's all because of Mick Taylor on guitar.  That guy is awesome.  He was their "new" guitar player and, although they never gave him credit,  he supposedly helped co-write Sway and Moonlight Mile, which is an incredible song.  But lets face it, this whole record is basically about drugs because, well, that's what they were into. Waaay into. Sticky Fingers is an album about addiction; the message apparently being that drugs are all that can get you through sometimes.  Don't forget, this wasn't too long after the mess at Altamont.  Anyway, on the original vinyl edition of Sticky Fingers, you can actually unzip the fly of the front-sleeve's jeans, and if you sniff the underpants of the back-sleeve, you're sniffing Andy Warhol, the cover artist himself.  Not that there's anything wrong with that.  Don't let me forget Wild Horses, the Stones' first serious attempt at a country song.  Very powerful music. Brown Sugar is the best, Dead Flowers is another of my faves, and Sister Morphine is downright scary. Dark album.  Speaking of which......

4.)  DARK SIDE OF THE MOON, PINK FLOYD, 1973
Ok, this one's got to be up there with the all-time most awesome records in the history of the universe.  And it's all about going nuts!  I've probably listerned to the Dark Side from beginning to end more times than any other album.  Saw it performed in it's entirety (twice) by the Floyd themselves as I mentioned over on the "10 Best Concerts List." Let me tell you, that was an exceptional night.  Yowzah!  I am one lucky mo-fo. And maybe it's because I've heard it so many times, but there are so many great lines in there; "There's someone in my head but it's not me"......"Money, it's a gas"......"The sun is the same in a relative way, but you're older"......and my favorite, "And if the band you're in starts playing different tunes, I'll see you on the dark side of the moon."   I love how they mix psychedelic art-rock with jazz fusion and bluesrock so effortlessly that you almost can't stop listening till the whole thing is over.  Truly great music.

3.)  HYMNS TO THE SILENCE, VAN MORRISON, 1991
I know we don't play him on The Bone, but I've always been a big fan of Van Morrison, way before Ronnie Montrose was his guitar player even.  This was something like his 23rd album, a 2-record set that came out in the fall of 1991. Sorry to report, it really doesn't rock at all.  When they say "hymns" in the title, they mean it. It's a pretty mellow mix of folk, pop, Celtic music, R&B, and gospel.  I know it doesn't sound very exciting, but there's some truly compelling music here.  I'm Not Feeling It Anymore and Why Must I Always Explain have got to be about some woman in his life.  Great tunes. Van practically goes country with I Can't Stop Loving You while Pagan Streams and It Must Be You are very sweet love songs. On Hynford Street is all about growing up in Belfast in Northern Ireland and the title track, Hymns To The Silence, is also one of my favorites.  This album is definetly not for everybody, but I love it.

2.) THE JOSHUA TREE, U2, 1987
I know this is a dark album, but I truly dig it.  I love the way The Edge takes the first song, Where the Streets Have No Name, from nothing to everything in about 90 seconds. Then it's Bono: "I wanna run, I want to hide, I wanna tear down the walls that hold me inside."  What an epic opener.  But it gets better:  I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For ...... again, all starting with The Edge. That guy is amazing.  One of my favorite U2 songs is next:  With Or Without You, "On a bed of nails she makes me wait......"  Awesome lyrics. I'm trying to think where I was when The Joshua Tree came out, and it must have been when I was doing afternoons at The Rocker, KRQR. I remember  watching Max Headroom on TV, and going to see Robin Williams in Good Morning Vietnam.  Which reminds me of another great track on the album: Bullet The Blue Sky.  And another fave:  In God's Country, but I love listening to the whole thing, from beginning to end.  This is an excellent album from my boys, U2.

1.)  LED ZEPPELIN  IV, 1971
What do you say......It defines the band? It set the standard for 70's rock? It contains one of the most famous songs ever? Yes, yes, and yes!  This album IS Led Zeppelin and IS truly incredible.  I think what I like is the way they mix heavy metal and folk with old-school blues and Jimmy and Robert's mystic ramblings.  It's absolutely amazing how they make it all work.  Stairway To Heaven notwithstanding (no matter how many times you've heard it, it's still a spectacular piece),  Rock and Roll is the best track on the album.  My first day on the job at KRQR, Peter B. Collins introduced me by asking, "Been along time, Weedman?" Then he played it on the radio, "It's been a long time since I rock and rolled."  By the way, Peter B. was the first guy to actually call me "Weedman."  That was about 13 years after this "untitled" album came out and, as I recall, it was played many thousands of times at The Rocker, as it is nowadays at The Bone.  Robert Plant once told me how much he enjoyed Going to California, so I guess there's where that song came from.  That, along with Black Dog and Misty Mountain Hop and every other track on there is what makes this such a killer record (I say record because it was on vinyl when it came out!).  And of course Jimmy Page had a little input along the way, too.  Be sure and check my "Ten Best Concerts" list for an amazing Zeppelin show from way back in the day.